SANTIAGO ESTELLANO

Gaia's Revenge - Covid Girl - COVID-19 Pandemic
 
SUMMARY
 
 
This project constitutes an artistic interpretation of the moment we are living in, and the reaction that the planet has to human actions due to the inappropriate use of its own resources.
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It is a composition of 3 collages made during the 2020 quarantine. Covid Girl, Gaia's Revenge, COVID-19 Pandemic.
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The Earth will get rid of us if we don't change our priorities and resolve the damage we are causing it.
PANDEMIC
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Man throughout his history has been a witness, perpetrator and victim of
progressive degradation of the environment and depletion of natural resources. Their anti-environmental behavior is due to the desire for profit, both individual and social, and ignorance of their relationships with nature.
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In its favor is the awareness and effort in recent years to stop the deterioration of ecosystems. But unbridled consumerism, a certain degradation of social norms, the exploitation of human resources, and the environment continue to play against us.
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The Earth, and its components, mutate and adapt.
There are enough signs that show that humans, and all living beings, are one more element that makes up this living organism.
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What if the current pandemic was “Gaia's Revenge”?
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Without resorting to conspiracy theories, the coronavirus could be understood as the result of the conduct of a technocratic world, which has generated environmental problems for a long time as the Effect Greenhouse, Global Climate Warming, Deterioration of the Ozone Layer, by  name a few.
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In his article Leonardo Boff writes Caring for the Earth-protecting life: how to avoid  end of the world refers: “I estimate that current diseases such as dengue, chikungunya, zica virus,  sars, ebola, measles, the current coronavirus and the generalized degradation in human relationships, marked by deep social inequality/injustice and the  lack of a minimum solidarity, they are a retaliation of Gaia for the offenses that  we continually inflict.” (Boff, Leonardo - 03/17/2020)
 
Gaia is defending herself, self-regulating exhausted. According to the scientific community we are in a new geological era Anthropocene, characterized by human behavior on earth. These totally aggressive and violent actions, in which more than a thousand  species per year is somewhat worse than the Anthropocene, the Necrocene: the era in which  Human beings cause massive death.
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Gaia is an organism, and humanity is part of it, the mass deaths from the  Covid-19 could be the form of self-defense. This is a global catastrophe that has not come from outside like a war or a  explosion, but from within. Viruses are within us and we are the ones who  We spread them. This is why we had to learn to live with social distancing  and isolation. Human activity has generated these pandemics because we have  altered the water cycle and the ecosystem that maintains the balance on the planet.
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COVID-19 is detected when 4 workers at the wholesale seafood market of the  South China, located in the city of Wuhan entered a local hospital with a  kind of pneumonia. Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses. Hundreds of them circulate among animals  such as pigs, camels, bats and cats. The variant causing the pandemic  COVID-19 is only the seventh coronavirus believed to have passed from an animal to a  human.
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As of October 12, 2020, COVID-19 has been infecting 37,955,113 human beings  in the world and to date there are 1,082,928 dead according to Johns University  Hopkins.
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In Wuhan on January 22, with a population of 9 million people, after a  outbreak of 500 people and 17 dead, the Chinese authorities closed the city to  prevent spread. This is how the isolation began, first in Wuhan and then by the  rest of the world. Today is the COVID-19 pandemic of the year 2020.
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In Buenos Aires we comply with a severe quarantine until October 12, the date on which  The WHO asked governments to avoid quarantines as the main method to  control the spread of the coronavirus. (Infobae - 10/12/20)
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The confinement is a mandatory spiritual retreat that leads us to introspection and  analysis of what is happening and which in turn leads to a gigantic roller coaster  emotional.
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NASA has verified the decrease in pollution levels at the world. The first values were seen in China. Since February, drops of between 20% and 30% have been detected in emissions of  nitrogen dioxide (NO2) in some regions of countries hit hard by the  coronavirus, such as Italy, China and the United States. Madrid, Milan and Rome registered a decrease of 45% and Paris 54% of concentration of nitrogen dioxide compared to the previous year, in a single month, in  Sydney under 38%, Los Angeles 29%, Rio de Janeiro 26%, Durban 9%. Buenos Aires during March reduced air pollution by 50% due to decrease  of transit a week after starting isolation.
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"No war, no recession, no other pandemic, has had such an impact  dramatic in CO2 emissions over the last century such as the one achieved by the  covid-19 in a few months," wrote Matt McGrath, environment correspondent for  the BBC.
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While the human beings lock themselves up, the animals take over the cities. Deer have been seen in Nara, Japan. Javalies running through different cities of  Italy, Spain, Israel. Dolphins near the port of Cagliari in Sardinia, Italy. ducks in  the Trevi Fountain. Mountain Goats in Wales. Newly hatched turtles have been seen  on beaches in Thailand. In Venice the water is crystal clear.
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We are the virus, Mother Nature recovers hers...
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